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If any place on Earth should possess a singular insight into the nature of a hit single, it’s Sweden.

While the country that spawned ABBA shouldn’t have to do much more than utter that acronym to settle any argument about pop supremacy, it could seal the deal simply by adding two words: Max Martin.

The focus of The Song Machine: Inside the Hit Factory, a new book by New Yorker writer John Seabrook, Martin has defined the pop mainstream for the last decade and a half. He’s had a hand in writing and/or producing a disquieting number of emblematic singles, from Britney Spears’ “. . . Baby One More Time” to the Backstreet Boys’ “I Want It That Way” to Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl” all the way up to Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” and the Weeknd’s pharmaceutical love song, “Can’t Feel My Face.”

It got us wondering: Who have music fans in Sweden elevated to hit status that we haven’t even heard about yet?

Based on statistics for Spotify Sweden, it’s someone named Lukas Graham, which turns out to be the name of a band fronted by one Lukas Graham Forchhammer. And they’re not even Swedish, they’re Danish.

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Their current hit is a poignant single about aging called “7 Years Old” (http://bit.ly/lukas7years ) that sounds like a cross between Hozier’s “Take Me to Church” and Ed Sheeran’s “Photograph.”

We’ll get our first taste of the band this week, when Warner Canada releases “7 Years Old” and “Mama Said” here as singles.

Soundtracks: It was barely seven months ago that observers were trumpeting the return of soundtracks as a robust commercial force with the unforeseen success of an album of music from the TV phenomenon Empire.

These days? Not so much. While that series remains a hit in its second season, its ratings haven’t sustained the rarefied levels of last spring, which means the show’s upcoming second soundtrack — the first of two new volumes — will likely sell less than its predecessor, especially if it’s depending on limp singles like the Pitbull-driven “No Doubt About It” (http://bit.ly/empirenodoubt ).

Elsewhere, Sam Smith’s theme to James Bond’s Spectre won’t have anywhere near the shelf life of Adele’s “Skyfall,” and a soundtrack hasn’t even been announced for the season’s big YA movie, the final instalment of the Hunger Games franchise.

At this rate, the best bet for a sleeper hit along the lines of Empire might be Rock the Kasbah, whose soundtrack concludes with Bill Murray’s rendition of “Smoke on the Water” (http://bit.ly/billsmoke ).

Vinyl: The sum total of Amy Winehouse’s output is being gathered up in an eight-LP box. The Collection includes the two studio albums released during her lifetime, Frank (on two discs) and Back to Black, along with the spotty posthumous compilation Lioness, the double-LP Live From Shepherd’s Bush, recorded in 2007 and making its debut on vinyl, and a final disc of rarities dominated by BBC sessions and concert recordings.

The package, pressed on 180-gram vinyl and including a print and a set of photographs, is due out in Canada on Nov. 13.

The current wave of vinyl has been powered by album reissues but has also included singles (witness this year’s multi-volume series of 45s by the Who), so perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that the resurgence has moved on to the next frontier: mono.

Due out here Dec. 4, Cream: The Singles 1967-1970 boxes up 10 of the band’s U.K. and U.S. singles, including “White Room,” “Sunshine of Your Love” and “Badge,” all in glorious mono and each housed in picture sleeves.

As anyone knows who was fortunate enough to have heard the mono versions of several key David Bowie tracks on the vinyl version of the recent Five Years box set, the difference in punch and power over the stereo versions can be remarkable.

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